Hey, Al Green, your censured, buddy! Republicans won’t stand for such despicable behavior!
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I noticed today that the official Senate website has a page on the Smoot Hawley tariff. It says “the Senate passed the Smoot-Hawley Tariff, among the most catastrophic acts in congressional history.”
I’m guessing that page gets taken down, or revised to say how wonderful tariffs are.
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Finland might want to build a wall…
Customs seizes five kilos of cocaine shipped from the US
Finland
Domestic
06 March 2025Finnish Customs has intercepted a shipment of five kilograms of cocaine smuggled from the United States. The drugs, with an estimated street value of at least one million euros, were intended for distribution in Eastern and Central Finland.
In July 2024, Customs seized a parcel from the US containing three kilograms of cocaine. The package was addressed to a man living in North Karelia.
…or put tariffs on US coca products. 
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did it work? anyone?
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It did not work, and the United States sank deeper into the Great Depression
full quote for your entertainment
In 1930, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, in an effort to alleviate the effects of the… Anyone? Anyone?.. the Great Depression, passed the… Anyone? Anyone? The tariff bill? The Hawley-Smoot Tariff Act? Which, anyone? Raised or lowered?.. raised tariffs, in an effort to collect more revenue for the federal government. Did it work? Anyone? Anyone know the effects? It did not work, and the United States sank deeper into the Great Depression. Today we have a similar debate over this. Anyone know what this is? Class? Anyone? Anyone? Anyone seen this before? The Laffer Curve. Anyone know what this says? It says that at this point on the revenue curve, you will get exactly the same amount of revenue as at this point. This is very controversial. Does anyone know what Vice President Bush called this in 1980? Anyone? Something-d-o-o economics. “Voodoo” economics.
video for those who don't like to read
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The Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, steps down next week so was thinking about his almost 10 years as our leader. Tremendously popular to start but forced to step down at the end as his popularity plummeted. Typical political trajectory.
I am sharing with our American friends a story from 2017 that vividly shows a big difference between being a POTUS and a Canadian Prime Minister: the ability to meet your constituents informally without being accompanied by a massive security detail.
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In November’s election, I’d mentioned the local disappearance of the red yard sign. Both Republicans and Democrats had been using blue signs. There a special election locally in about a month, and this time the red signs have returned.
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It is winter, and 3 states in New England are under a fire weather warning. Not western US where fires are common, but forking temperate, moist New England.
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East End of Long Island just had a large brush fire
Thought for the morning: Wil the US government officially avoid a recession (and perhaps undo the COVID recession) by changing how it defines/recognizes recessions?
I can’t find the source, but I could swear I saw something from President Musk similar to “economic metrics related to laid-off government employees and programs that DOGE cuts don’t count because government spending doesn’t contribute anything to the economy”.
I predict we’ll see adjustments applied to government numbers to account for the economy-boosting effect that DOGE is producing.
Yes it will. Or at least, delay recognition as I think even changing definitions won’t be sufficient.
Lutnick made the comment that you are trying to recall.
Effectively, if we have:
GDP = C + I + G + (X - M)
They want to remove that G (Government spending) in order to try to hide the large drop in GDP that is going to be showing up over the next 12-24 months.
You are correct, I misattributed it.
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My aunt recently bought a lot of chalk now that the weather is nice and has been making her displeasure known in front of her local Congressman’s office.
For privacy, not posting an image saying “Vote for [Congressperson]”), followed by:
They keep washing it off, she keeps coming back. She’s retired, progressive, and angry.
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Another sign that I have “TDS”. Whenever someone asks me a “what’s happening?” or “how are you holding up” type of question, which could be about weather, work, parenting, sleep, illness, etc, I just assume they are referring to random shit Trump is doing.
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Someone about a block from me had a Trump yard sign and a Trump flag hanging from his garage. Yard sign disappeared with the snow, Trump flag has been replaced by a US flag.
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There’s so much about the actions of the current admin that bothers me, but cutting the propaganda arms in Voice of America and others is a nothingburger for me. I think this is by design, as the admin is so far trying to target things less that 50% of people will get bothered by if cut.
I’m not sure traditional VoA propaganda is offering bang for buck now when social media government misinformation is offering tremendous returns.